At a budget hearing last week, Bethlehem School Superintendent Joseph Roy quickly dismissed a suggestion that it's time for school districts to consolidate. "It will never happen," he predicted. Here's why. Voluntary consolidation would require people like Roy, a horde of top-heavy administrators at nearly every school district, to look for another job. So Dr. Roy would much rather raise your taxes. I can certainly understand his prediction, but I think he's wrong. Consolidation may be closer now than ever. Everyone is up in arms over Governor Corbett's no-tax hike budget. I saw that last week, too, at a community forum in which four of our local state representatives got an earful. What has them most angry are the education cuts. Basic funding is slashed $550 million, along with $260 million in school district grants for kindergarten and prekindergarten. On top of that, $650 million for higher education is gone.
Corbett insists he's merely returning funding to the 2008 prestimulus levels, and blames both the feds and school districts, who were warned that the stim package was only temporary.While that's certainly true, it's only part of the story. In Bethlehem, for example, returning to 2008 levels would mean a reduction of $2.5 million. But Corbett has cut $7 million. In Allentown, a return to prestimulus levels would mean a $8 million cut. But the state has cut its funding to Allentown by $15 million. State Rep. Steve Samuelson, who has done the math on individual school districts, claims that statewide, stimulus money for education was $654 million. Corbett has cut $1.1 billion.
Between now and the actual adoption of a budget, Corbett has hinted he's open to restoring some of these educational cuts. But the party's over. Like it or not, Corbett is unwilling to raise taxes, and school districts are now facing a teacher pension tsunami next year, when they will have to start paying an addition $2.5 billion for retiring teachers.
Consolidation of the state's 500 school districts is fast becoming an economic necessity. State Senator John Wozniak introduced legislation last year that would provide for county-wide school districts. Locally, Lisa Boscola signed as a sponsor.
In the House, legislation approving a referendum to consolidate Fayette County is being considered. School districts would still maintain their separate identity, but there would be one county administration. Locally, Bob Freeman and Jennifer Mann have signed as sponsors.
Sumter County has already decided to consolidate its two school districts into one, effective July 1.
Naturally, superintendents and school boards have commissioned studies showing that consolidation will end the universe. They'd much rather lay off teachers. Or raise taxes. But as one school director told The Pittsburgh Tribune, "You don't have to be a Wall Street businessman to see the savings."
26 comments:
and they should do the same with many local Township Governments.
Why would any District want to consolidate and have to pay a neighbors debt when they are most likely in less debt. I find these School District and Municipal pipe dreams of merger a JOKE!! Many of these districts and munis. have so much debt that anyone wanting a merger should have his or her head examined. Remember, when you merge, you buy the debt too!
I've made this point on Geeting's blog - no consolidations without votes by the people being impacted, and no stacking the vote - i.e., a countywide vote for whether all municipalities in Lehigh County should consolidate. I don't want Allentown deciding my future.
I also think a portion of the savings are illusory (you simply never get all the savings that politicians promise, they find a way to spend it), and if we've learned one thing over the years, the odds of a big government running efficiently as about as great as the odds of pigs flying.
The Banker
I'm assuming Chris, you also are including "Borough's"
Even the fiscally retarded Rendell called for consolidation to 100 school districts. Does Northampton County really need eight school districts with eight overpaid supers and associated administrations? But suburban residents, just like Obama, don't want their precious offspring anywhere near low income minorities.
They can't manage themselves now. How in the hell do you think the surviving overpaid incompetents will handle an even larger operation?
Eventually the same model will be applied. More and more bureaucrats will be needed, at even higher compensation, because they just could not foresee what it would take to run a megadistrict.
The only thing that will be consolidated will be the power of the state to redistribute resources.
Attend your school board meetings and start digging by looking at the set up of the oontracts for staff and administration. Look for the non-essential personnel and see how closely they are tied to testing. Look at the cost of testing and tell your state reps to end it. Go after the mandates, funded and unfunded, imposed by the federal and state governments. There are gazillions of dollars being spent on nonsense like 25 kids to a class. That is absurd and there is no proof that it creates smarter kids. Keep in mind that our kids sit in small classes and then move to larger classes in high school and college. Which number is correct. Small classes means the need for more teachers and more classrooms and that means more needless schools in what is an ever shrinking number unless you include the constant increase in illegal immigrants into the nation.
As a voice of reason the whole merger of schools and local government is plausible. It should have been done 40 years ago.
Now, a lot of these districts and township's are almost bankrupt. Why should a district or township that as done the right fiscal thing for years subject its taxpayers to pay the debt of, lets say.... Bethlehem School District??? It doesn't make sense and the overwhelming majority of taxpayers would never ever go for consolidations unless they know that some other community will be forced to bail them out.
There are lots of reasons bot to consolidate, and they have been listed here. I lived in a state where the districts were county, not local. My elementary level son had to go to school several miles away while there was a school closer to our home. Why? Because everything had to racially and economically balanced. One never knew from one year to the next where their children would be, and it was unfair to everyone.
The Gov and legislature need to put on their man pants and move to a statewide teacher's contract. they negotiate it. They pay for it. Everybody gets equity
That's an excellent suggestion.
6:04, I am talking about ONE administration for numerous districts within one county. But I think we need to move towards one school district. And if school districts don't do it willingly, the legislature should do it for them, as they have done before.
"I don't want Allentown deciding my future."
But it already is. Many of the issues being promoted regionally are designed to make Allentown a better community. A-town's problems impact on all of us already.
And if we were to consolidate, kids in A-town would have the same shot at a decent education as kids on Orefield.
I consider children are our most precious asset, and the same savings would occur as have resulted from consolidating police departments. It will need watching, but should work. I'm not talking about one statewide school district, but 67 of them.
Bernie,
Here's what I wrote on my web site about school district consolidation:
For some small school districts, consolidation makes sense. The Monaca and Center Area school districts in Western Pennsylvania have just merged, and the results should be positive for both districts. The rationale for consolidation is normally reducing costs, especially administrative costs. These costs are only about 5% of East Penn's budget, and about half of that is spent on building principals and assistant principals, which would not go away. After having looked at the data, we think we could, at best, remove 1% of our administration costs and 1-2% of other costs through consolidation. (We already participate in a consortium with seven other school districts for purchasing health insurance, and we take advantage of many other cooperative purchasing opportunities for a wide variety of supplies.)
Many of our other costs would likely go up. When it comes time to negotiate a consolidated teachers contract, do you think the union would start negotiating at the lowest or highest salaries from the former districts? Parkland owns their own bus fleet, East Penn outsources to First Student, Salisbury outsources to Paragon Transit, and Allentown only buses their special education students. Consolidating bus practices and potentially expanding bus service in Allentown could add significant costs. Also, districts are required to transport students to private schools within 10 miles of the district's border. If a county-wide school district were formed (or even just a suburban district), non-public school transportation costs would increase dramatically because of the expanded borders.
East Penn has just completed a major building program that started 20 years ago. Allentown is in the early stages of a building program that is estimated to cost $250 million. In a consolidated school district, the funds for that program would almost certainly come from the suburbs, leading to substantial and sustained tax increases for decades to come.
There are nine Lehigh County school districts, and they all have different tax rates. East Penn's are the fourth lowest. In a consolidated district one tax rate would apply to the entire district, making it near certain that high tax rate districts like Northern Lehigh would have significantly lower tax bills, and lower tax rate districts like Parkland and East Penn would experience rate increases.
Bottom line: Minimal cost efficiencies, potential increases in other costs, potentially high integration costs, and shift of tax burden from other districts to East Penn residents. Since our district is already one of the highest performing in the county, it is unlikely education would improve. In short, any forced school consolidation would probably have no benefit and lead to higher taxes for our residents, so I do not support the concept.
I do support encouraging individual districts to explore the benefits they might get from consolidation, as Monaca and Center Valley expect. (It's also useful to note that the merger process for those two very small districts lasted four years, so this was not a "quick fix.")
Alan, Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Frankly, the people who are scouring this argument are not you, but school administrators, so I suspect the data you present, although I am sure there are very real problems.
I would suggest an independent study statewide, not one funded by school boards or superintendents. If it makes no sense, it makes no sense. But I suspect it does and that the reason many administrators oppose this is job security. They sure have not impressed me as being particularly tight with a buck.
One reason for the high cost of public education is the state and federal mandates. When a new school must be built, there is a mandate in every corner of the entire process , from sq. footage requirements, architectural plans, bond attorneys, EPA regs and other school code regs. The school debt alone is frightening when a renovation or an addition is done.
I say, consolidate all schools by redistricting. When one school becomes too full, send the surplus of students to the next closest school that has capacity, and so on.
One big elephant in the living room is that this state spends billion of dollars every year to prepare students for the next step. Students then go into tens of thousands in debt to have a college degree and all that hails from the time, money and study.
But then they are welcomed to an $8.00/hr labor market. Where's the great payoff?
"I say, consolidate all schools by redistricting. When one school becomes too full, send the surplus of students to the next closest school that has capacity, and so on."
Another excellent, and workable, solution.
Most graduates of PA schools are smart enough to get out of PA. The rest stay here and teach.
ANother huge cost that is crippling the schools is the mighty price tag of special education. Because the laws are written to require all children to attend school, you have some very sick, high acuity children in IU classes. They have vents and tube-feeds, require private nurses, even on the bus rides, and individual education plans. What you wind up with is a classroom with 5 kids, and 9 adults.
A better way to handle this, is to give a voucher to the parent(for kids in this extreme condition) if the parent does not feel public school serves this child. The voucher would be a set dollar amount that the parent could use as the parent sees fit.
For example, a child in this condition is likely to cost $150K a year when you add in the small class, the private nurse, the OT/PT and Speech. Since many of these children have already reached maximum potential, and many of these mandated services no longer help the child, it may be of benefit to hand the parent a check for 50K each year, and the parent does with it as the parent sees fit.
Bernie,
Actually, I pulled my data from state reports (which are taken from school district audit reports) and the salary lists of our administrators. It was not provided to me by any administrators.
Consolidation makes sense in some of the smaller counties in PA. Some school districts in PA have less students than a single elementary school in Allentown or Bethlehem.
As for the pension tsunami, it isn't just retiring teachers. It's lunch room workers, custodians, business people, technical personnel, maintenance workers, and secretaries. These are people who have worked 12 months a year at generally lower than average salaries for 35 years. So, its about normal people who entered into a contract and honored their end. And unlike a lot of other states, these people have contributed a sizable portion.
Why would any District want to consolidate and have to pay a neighbors debt when they are most likely in less debt. I find these School District and Municipal pipe dreams of merger a JOKE!! Many of these districts and munis. have so much debt that anyone wanting a merger should have his or her head examined. Remember, when you merge, you buy the debt too!
I think that's the point. Consolidate Parkland with ASD and Bethlehem with Saucon Valley and spread the societal costs around.
But it already is. Many of the issues being promoted regionally are designed to make Allentown a better community. A-town's problems impact on all of us already.
Right. How can one go through life in the valley and completely dismiss the 3rd largest city in PA right in the middle? Allentown needs help and it needs help from the suburbs everyone scattered to over the past 40 years.
Anon 9:19 There's a reason people leave. Why should the rest of the county have to pay for the mistakes Allentown made all by itself, without the help or the consideration of the outlining communities?
I've heard talk about regionalization and consolidation in this Valley for decades and no postive movement is ever made towards that end. You can claim that it is not relevant, but the move towards a two-county health bureau stands as a good example on how this community cannot work together towards a goal that on many levels would benefit the majority.
We live in a society where every single person must be satisfiec; where every constituent must be heard and accommodated. As long as that situation exists - and I see no change looming anytime soon - we will remain divided and selfish and inefficient and not ready or able to tackle problems in a serious way.
Our cities stand like impoverished islands among the prosperous surrounding seas of suburbs.
Within our region are two counties that cannot work together due to poltiics and ego and we expect 62 municipalities to compromise and work for the benefit of the majority or greater good? School districts, who's boards cannot agree amongst themselves on taxes or what quality education is, are supposed to rise to the occasion and act like true leaders?
Regardless of his motives, the Superintendent is correct: It ain't gonna happen.
Anon 9:19 There's a reason people leave. Why should the rest of the county have to pay for the mistakes Allentown made all by itself, without the help or the consideration of the outlining communities?
Mistakes or the result of an urban area whose tax base has abandoned it? I'm one of those. I left Allentown for better schools. It's not anyone's fault that the citys schools expenses have gone up while the revenues have gone down. But we all need to correct the problems together. You just can't close your eyes.
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